


Renegades

by ohmyflavors (hannibae)



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:22:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28018437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannibae/pseuds/ohmyflavors
Summary: Rhett’s TikTok is a good thing for them, truly. Their popularity has landed them a few sponsorships, given them opportunities to expand a little further. They’re in the process of starting a YouTube channel and a podcast. It’s exciting.
Relationships: Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal
Comments: 1
Kudos: 29





	Renegades

**Author's Note:**

> this is a commission fill for [moch-ila](https://moch-ila.tumblr.com/)! they asked for gen z'ers rhett and link grossly in love on the internet!

“ _ Bro _ ,” he’s saying, and Link scrunches his face up at his phone, laughing slightly. Rhett’s eyes look huge, his face slender and handsome. He’s got a freakin’ buzzcut and is addressing the camera with a look of shock. Off to a great start there, man. 

“Bro,” he says again. “Listen. My boyfriend is like, so freakin’ cute, bro.  _ Bro _ , I’m telling you, bro, he’s like, the cutest  _ freakin’  _ bro, bro.” 

And then there’s Rhett’s head turning towards Link’s own voice, from where he’s curled up, taking a nap in their bed, “I’m not your bro, man!” A rustle of blankets, Link’s flailing limbs as he struggles to get himself untangled from the comforter and give Rhett a piece of his mind. 

Rhett’s head turns back to the camera, jerky and erratic. “Dude. Listen, dude, my boyfriend is like--” 

The video ends there, dramatic and funny, and Link shakes his head, shoves at Rhett where he’s laughing at himself. 

“I’m funny, man,” he says, and Link shoves at him again, but curls his fist in the front of the hoodie he’s wearing and tugs him in so he can press a dry kiss to his mouth. 

He’s still grinning, smug and stupid, and Link says, “Quit bein’ so cocky, man. Your head gets any bigger, we’re in trouble.” 

“Hey, look, I’m just sayin’,” Rhett laughs, looks at Link through his lashes, and Link smacks him on the chest with the back of his hand. 

“Save it for the TikToks,” Link scoffs. “How the  _ crap  _ did that one get over two million views? It’s stupid.” 

Rhett shrugs, and his bony shoulder digs into Link’s chin where he’s got his head resting. Link turns and sinks his teeth into whichever part he gets to first in retaliation. “People like cute gay couples,” Rhett says, pushing at Link’s head with a hand on his forehead, wincing a little. 

When Rhett started this whole thing, Link was skeptical. Maybe for that exact reason, exploiting their relationship for views, for the inkling of pseudo-fame that comes with being popular on the internet. But he couldn’t shut him down when he seemed so genuinely excited about his videos, about the slow traction they got. It’s just that sometimes he wonders how far this’ll end up going. Sure, they’ve got the popularity now, because they’re two attractive, young gay boys, but--

But how long does that last? How long are people going to stick around and watch them goof off together? Their last video that went viral involved the two of them eating hidden menu items from various fast food places, and, like, sure it seems like those videos will always do well; but will they? 

Thinking about it makes his head hurt, so he vows to not think about it for at least the rest of the day, chooses instead to curl into Rhett, tug him down further into the mattress as he buries his face in his neck. He murmurs, “Let’s take a nap.” 

“I literally just woke you up from a nap.” 

“Yup,” Link deadpans, wrapping his arm around Rhett’s middle. “Boy, Interrupted.” 

Rhett snorts indelicately, and Link feels him press his mouth to the crown of Link’s head. For half a freakin’ blessed minute, there’s silence, and Link feels himself start to doze, warm and safe and secure. But it’s broken by Rhett asking, “Do you think Starbucks will put out any controversial cups this year? It’s been a while since we’ve had a ‘Bucks scandal.” 

“Bet they’ll put masks on the mascot,” Link murmurs, laughing softly to himself, right into Rhett’s skin. 

“Mask-ot,” Rhett says solemnly, nodding a little bit. Link’s got a sneaking suspicion, and peaks an eye open. Sure enough, Rhett’s holding his phone up with one hand as he films. Link digs his fingers into his side with a laugh just to watch him squirm. 

Long limbs go flying, and he rolls away from Link, almost on the edge of the bed, panting around his laughs. “Would you just take a freakin’ nap with me?” Link asks around his own laughter. 

\-- 

Rhett’s first TikTok was a series of stories, four parts in total, all of which were cataloguing their life together. In Link’s opinion, it was dramatic as hell, but Rhett thought it was  _ tasteful _ . He’d filmed himself flipping through notes they passed in class as kids, their letters for their blood oath, the pictures they colored in first grade when they were held in from recess as punishment. 

He told everyone about going to college together, how they’d decided to pursue the same thing, not stray too far from each other.  _ Never  _ straying too far. He talked about Cape Fear, about the talking rocks. One day, he told his audience, they’ll go back to the talking rocks. But he claims to have something special planned for that day, so it won’t be for a while. They haven’t been in years. They haven’t  _ needed  _ to go in years. 

And in part four, he introduced Link by all but shoving his tongue down his throat, with an obnoxious caption of, “AND NOW WE’RE BOYFRIENDS!!!” and ending the story like that. People ate it up. A love story for the ages, something true and real and honest. 

And, to be honest, they weren’t always headed that direction. There were many, many nights of dancing around the subject because it was easier to avoid than to give in to all the damn whispering everyone did about them, the rumors that spread, the sidelong glances that neither of them wanted to acknowledge. Rhett punched someone for picking on Link when they were younger, and Link still remembers the proud look on Rhett’s face when he said, “Called you gay, buy like, in the mean way. So I punched him.” How he’d shrugged like it was nothing. 

Like Link’s stomach hadn’t knotted up into a quilt at the idea of Rhett defending his honor. Even then, even that young. Now, he likes to think he’s been in love all this time. 

At that moment, he thought it was just, like, gas or something. 

It wasn’t until talking about college that they brought anything up. The too lazy, didn’t read version of it is that they argued for about three hours until Link finally had enough and just kissed him. 

The long version is that Rhett was worried about ‘ruining their friendship’ and ‘telling their parents’ and ‘what if they don’t want to watch the same movies all the time’ but, basically, that was all bullshit. They  _ always  _ want to watch the same movies. 

(As for the other two, Link wasn’t as sure, but they were less important, if you ask him.) 

Their parents ended up being fine with it, in the end, because it didn’t change anything for them, really. They still had to feed both of them and put up with their nonsense. Now, they just hold hands sometimes. It’s cool. 

So by the time TikTok became a thing for them, Link was pretty committed, to say the least. It’s been five years since they sat on the talking rocks and yelled at each other about kissing the same girl  _ not  _ being a way to hide that they wanted to kiss each  _ other _ . (So many people still don’t believe them.) Rhett had tried to convince Link to start his own account, post his own videos, because he’s funny, too, and he’s cute, and he could get so many views, and  _ that’s just good business, Link. _

But, like, he doesn’t want to. 

Doing things  _ with  _ Rhett is better. 

And if Rhett had to change his username to RhettandLink, then whatever. He can deal with it. It’s got a good ring to it. It’ll catch people’s attention. 

He’s even okay coming second. 

Well. 

He is  _ now,  _ at least. 

Rhett’s TikTok is a good thing for them, truly. Their popularity has landed them a few sponsorships, given them opportunities to expand a little further. They’re in the process of starting a YouTube channel and a podcast. It’s exciting. 

It’s exhausting, but it’s exciting. 

And Link only hates it when it’s got Rhett like he is today, where he’s furiously trying on different outfits and snapping when Link tells him something looks bad. 

“But, like, it looks bad, man,” Link says, snorting, amused more than anything right now with how Rhett’s overreacting about this. There’s the familiar prickle of tension and anger creeping up on him, but he’ll ignore it for now. “Pick something better.” 

Rhett throws a balled-up shirt at him, storms over to Link’s side of the closet to dig through his clothes like he’s going to find anything in there. 

“You ain’t gonna fit in a single damn thing in there, and you know it,” he laughs. “Where’d that sweater from the other day go?” 

“Laundry,” Rhett mumbles, flipping through Link’s hangers and frowning. 

“Go get it anyway,” Link insists. “That, and those black jeans you roll up at the bottoms, your denim jacket, and a hat to cover that dumbass haircut, and you’re fine.” 

Another shirt hits him square in the face, and he cackles as Rhett stalks off in the direction of the clothes hamper in the corner of the room. Coming up victorious with that sweater Link likes so much because it’s colorful and compliments Rhett’s eyes well, he scowls at him as he tugs off the button-up he was already wearing. 

He’s making one of those ridiculous “What I’d Wear” TikToks, where he’s got to change into a bunch of outfits. It’s always just a mess that Link’s got to clean up because Rhett doesn’t  _ care  _ if his clothes are folded and picked up or not. Somehow, it becomes Link’s problem since he wants to live in a clean, organized dorm room like a civilized human being. 

Which, really, is just something they bicker about constantly. Link likes to clean and Rhett’s not dirty, per se, but he’s cluttered. He’s okay with leaving books and schoolwork and literally anything else scattered around their dorm in favor of filming or editing or doing anything else. Link doesn’t entirely understand it, because it takes ten seconds to clean up after yourself; and, if you’re going to be an influencer on a wildly popular social media platform, shouldn’t you be more concerned with how your space looks?  _ People can see that you’ve left a pair of boxers hanging from the closet door, Rhett.  _

But he’s been this way since Link can remember. 

So he just gathers up Rhett’s discarded clothes and refolds them as he goes, trying to keep his mouth shut about it since Rhett’s in such a shitty mood as it is. He watches the tension fall from his shoulders as filming goes smoother and smoother, with Link helping him put together outfits that compliment him. In the end, he titles it “How My Boyfriend Would Dress Me” at Link’s insistence, since he helped so much. 

“We really should do a couple’s one of these,” Rhett says as he works on editing the video. “So many people are doing those right now.” 

Link grunts in agreement, only vaguely listening as he folds a pair of shorts. They really need to do laundry soon. Community laundry mat be damned. “Yeah, sure,” he says, offhanded. “We’d need to do something original, though. Like, ‘Wearing My Boyfriends Clothes’ or something.” 

And, there’s just hardly a beat before Rhett is flopping himself down on the bed, face-first into the mattress that creaks in protest to the assault. Rhett groans back in response, sounding tired and annoyed, but he says, “You’re a genius, Link.” 

With a grin, Link scratches his fingers over Rhett’s scalp, mourning the loss of the hair he’d decided to buzz off a couple weeks ago. It’s growing back, but so impossibly slowly that he’ll be fifty before he’s got enough to be worth anyone’s while. Partnered with the short beard he’s got going for him right now, it’s quite a  _ look _ . 

Not that Link thinks he looks bad, he just misses his hair. He misses when he had something to grip onto. Sometimes, he thinks they both do. Rhett will get this look in his eyes when he goes down on Link and Link’s fingers skitter over fucking  _ peach fuzz _ that says he misses when there was hair to curl his fingers into. Maybe he can convince him to grow it out, long and curly. 

He wonders how wild Rhett would let it get. 

“Keep doing that,” Rhett murmurs, face pressed into the sheets. Which, gross. They’ve really got to do laundry. 

Link complies, makes a soft humming sound in content, as he scrolls through his phone with his free hand. 

\-- 

“Got some good news!” 

Link’s got homework scattered across the bed, and Rhett skitters to a stop before he tosses the armful of books he’s carrying right into the mess. And, thinking, he turns and puts them on the dresser. 

“Thank you,” Link says, feeling his heartbeat slow to a normal rate now that he’s not worried he’ll have to reorganize all of this.

“So,” Rhett says, bouncing on his feet, looking every bit like the cat that got the cream. “Good news.” 

“You ever gonna actually tell me or do I gotta guess, Rhett?” 

It’s a tease, and Rhett flips him off with a laugh. “My momma saw one of our TikToks on the news.” 

“ _ What _ ?” That cold feeling of nerves and fear settles in tendrils in his guts. Maybe it’s just adrenaline or shock or something. 

“Yeah,” Rhett says, eyes going wide as he talks. “So, it was just the Buies Creek news, but still. It was that video we did where we tested different helmets out? They called us  _ influencers  _ and said we had a  _ cult following _ .” 

Rolling his eyes, Link laughs, “Man, they think testing out bike helmets makes us  _ influencers _ ? They should have showed one of the ten videos of us doing the freakin’ renegade if they wanted to throw around the word ‘influencers’.” 

Laughing, Rhett sort of throws himself at Link, not being very careful at all of Link’s homework spread around. Link yelps, annoyed, but Rhett just winds his arms around him, pulls him close, presses his lips to the side of Link’s head as he wrestles him down to the bed. Like a spidermonkey, he wraps himself around Link’s wriggling form, determined to hold him in place. 

“Quit it, man!” Link says, trying and failing to throw an elbow at him. “You’re a freak! Let me go!” 

“Can’t,” Rhett huffs, and Link knows what’s coming. He fuckin’  _ knows _ , and he immediately groans, thick with annoyance. “I’m dead.” 

And he goes limp, draped over Link and pinning him to the bed, the crinkling of Link’s homework mocking him. 

“I swear--” he starts, but Rhett cuts him off with, “I’m dead, Link.” 

“Rhett  _ freakin’  _ McLaughlin,” he tries again, teeth gritted. “Just let me up, man. I’ve got homework to do and you’re--” 

“I’m  _ dead _ , man,” he says again. “I don’t know what you want me to do about it.” 

“You ain’t fuckin’ dead, Rhett! You’re just a moron,” and this time he does get an elbow in his side, bony and sharp, and Rhett squirms with him, lets out a breathy, disbelieving laugh. But he doesn’t let go. He holds on tight, and Link groans, goes limp, too, dejected and annoyed. “Fine.” 

They fall silent after a beat, Rhett never letting up on his grip, and Link finds himself starting to doze off a little bit. He really needs to get homework done, but Rhett is comfortable and warm, and he’s been working for a couple hours now. So, he lets himself have this for a minute, curling a bit closer.

He feels Rhett press his mouth to the line of his throat, can feel his grin there. 

“We have a  _ cult following _ , Link,” he stage-whispers. 

Link snorts indelicately and elbows him again, but nicer this time. “I’m happy for you, man.” 

\-- 

“How big do you think we’ll make it?” 

Rhett’s got a mouthful of burger, is wiping at grease in the corners of his smile with a napkin already covered in crumbs and salt. He looks happy, relaxed. 

It’s easy for Link to look over at him, smiling happily, tossing a french fry in his mouth. He shrugs, because who knows? Who knows where any of this is going to to take them? There are too many things snowballing around right now for them to be able to really predict any of that, and knowing them, this is just the beginning. 

When they were kids, and they did that blood oath, they made a promise to each other-- to  _ themselves--  _ to do something awesome together. Link meant it, with every ounce of everything he’s got in him, and he knows Rhett did, too. This is inevitable. 

_ They  _ are inevitable. 

And riding the high of a Zoom meeting with a sponsorship gone well, it all feels so much bigger and so much better than they could have ever imagined any of this going. 

He settles somewhere around the area of, “The biggest.” 

And Rhett knocks into him with his shoulder around a laugh, shoveling a handful of fries into his mouth. Then, he gives Link a look he’s been wearing for days now, since they started solidifying their plans, setting them more and more in stone. 

They graduate at the end of the Spring. 

A big, open-ended world out there for them to explore at that point, and. And Link's not lying, not really-- they  _ could  _ become the biggest things the internet has to offer. They  _ could  _ build an empire out of this, out of  _ them.  _

He fully believes they can do anything and everything. 

They're moving this summer, once they get everything packed and in order. In fact, they'll be shipping some of their things to their new house soon. And then, they're going to roadtrip to California to meet it there. 

Link leans into Rhett, rests his head on his shoulder, just looking for the contact as a lump of emotion builds in his throat. This is all more than he ever could have dreamed for them. They were going to live in Buies Creek forever, settle down and have jobs as engineers and adopt a bunch of kids. 

Like, fifteen of them. 

A couple dogs, maybe. 

Something quiet and safe and  _ boring.  _

This is a better alternative, he thinks. 

And when Rhett kisses the top of his head, Link's pretty sure Rhett's thinking the same thing. 

\-- 

"Would you quit filming and watch these damn branches before they come flying back and snappin' me on the thighs?" 

He laughs, but he still pushes the branches away wider as they walk, snapping a few of them in half for good measure. Link watches where he's walking, making sure not to get stuck in the mud or something equally embarrassing since Rhett seems so keen on filming every aspect of this little adventure to the talking rocks they're having. 

They'd waded through the river as carefully as ever, Rhett's phone raises as high as he could manage, with Link scowling at him as he slipped on a rock and fell face-first into the water. Luckily, Rhett managed to get a slippery hand on him and tug him up before he got swept away or something, but it still means that Link looks like a wet dog on camera. 

Although, he thinks, Rhett's buzzcut still puts Link in the lead, so. There's that, he supposes. 

"We're almost there now," Rhett says. 

Furrowing his brow, Link takes in their surroundings. Something doesn't look right. He doesn't recognize these trees. "I think we passed them up, man." 

"What?" Rhett spins, looks around. He points the camera at Link. "Nah, they're deeper than this. I remember." 

"I'm pretty sure I remember them being closer to the river," Link insists. It's been a while, sure, but he remembers. He's got a pretty decent memory with this stuff.

Rhett huffs, shakes his head. "No way. They're deeper." 

"Rhett, I ain't walking a mile into the damn forest when the rocks are where we just came from." 

"It ain't a mile! It's like, a block and a half, tops!" He's getting frustrated, Link can tell, and his brows are knitting together, and it's-- 

He knows he's right, but bites his tongue in favor of putting his hands up in surrender and saying, "Alright, come on. The faster we get lost, the faster we can turn around and find the damn things." 

The frustrated sound Rhett makes is lessened by the gentle way he grabs Link's hand and guides him deeper into the woods, holding the camera steady the whole time. Link feels only a little bit bad about bickering on Rhett's video. He's obviously putting a lot of effort into getting clips that'll make a cohesive and exciting series. 

Behind the trees, the sun is starting to set. They don’t have very long before they’ll have to head back home. Link squeezes Rhett’s hand in his own, encouraging, setting the mood right again. He wants this to go well, whatever Rhett has planned. And when Rhett turns his head to smile at him, pulls him in close, Link goes willingly, parts his lips when Rhett kisses him and apologizes for being an asshole like that. 

The further they walk, the more Link feels vindicated, and the more he keeps his mouth shut. Tracing the slope of Rhett’s shoulders as they go, he keeps waiting for the telltale signs that he knows, too, but they never come. Maybe he’s just too cocky to admit he was wrong. Ever the competitor, maybe he just doesn’t want to  _ be  _ wrong. Either way, Link lets him have this, vows to keep his mouth shut. 

But, then.

Shit. 

“There they are, huh?” he says, and Rhett is gracious enough to take his victory silently for once, not whooping and rushing to muss up Link’s hair or anything. Huh. 

All he does is tug Link along, murmur, “Come on. You sit on the listening rock, yeah?” 

“Oh, sure, drag me all the way out here and you take the talking rock first,” Link teases.

Rhett sticks his tongue out at him in retaliation. And then, as Link is sitting himself down on the shorter rock, his shoes slipping against the damp moss growing there, Rhett scrambles to try and set up the camera so it’s pointing at them. He gets all professional with it, leans his phone against a rock and triple checks to make sure it’s lined up in a nice way. 

“Alright,” he says quietly once it’s to his liking, holding his hands up as he’s walking away as if to beg the camera not to move once he turns his back. Then, he’s tentatively situating himself on the talking rock. 

He looks ridiculous, way up there. All gangly limbs and big ears. Big eyes. 

Big heart. 

“Love you, bo,” Link says, even though he’s on the listening rock. 

Rhett just grins at him. 

“Love you, too, Link,” he says eventually. Clearing his throat, he rubs at the back of his neck. Link is attuned to the fact that there’s a camera pointed at them, filming every second of this. And even though they don’t  _ have  _ to share it with anyone, he knows Rhett will want to whittle it all down to the perfect video, capture whatever moment he’s trying to create here. So he sits and he waits patiently, tries to silently support his boyfriend. 

His  _ best friend _ . 

So when Rhett reaches into his pocket and pulls out a jewelry box, Link swallows thickly, stays quiet, eyes trained and suddenly wet His ears are ringing just a little bit, but he still manages to hear Rhett’s voice as he says, “We’re gonna do something awesome, Link, I know we are. Just like we promised.” 

He doesn’t have to ask the question, because Link’s laughing out a hysterical, “Yes. Yes,  _ of course _ , gosh, Rhett,” as he holds out his shaky hand. 

There are no real tears from either one of them, but he notices Rhett’s eyes are a little misty, too, and he ignores all of it to pull Rhett forward again and slot their mouths together. It’s familiar and it’s comforting and it’s  _ home _ . 

Rhett is home for him. 

Even across the country. Even with an audience they can’t see watching some of the most incredible moments in their lives unfold. 

Rhett is home. 

\-- 

Rhett’s ridiculous series gets an absurd number of views. Somehow, he manages to turn it into three thirty-second documentaries that are backdropped with a cotton candy North Carolina sky at sundown. The water of Cape Fear has never looked better. 

The cheesy, lopsided grin on Link’s face never leaves. 

Perched on the talking rocks, facing each other and making promises like they did as children. But they aren’t children anymore, and the promises they’re making are lined in gold. 

And people across the world watch them, find inspiration and joy from  _ them _ . 

Link remembers the heavy weight of that every time he reaches over and laces his and Rhett’s fingers together, palm-to-palm, lover-to-lover. 

He’s exactly where he wants to be. 


End file.
